Isaq Schrijver

Dictionary of South African Biography page 547

Schrijver, Isaq (Isak, Isaak) (fl. 1689), leader of expeditions into the interior, was an ensign in the service of the VOC. It is not known exactly when he arrived at the Cape, but on 9.8.1686 he was given his first instructions, namely to investigate Ihe salvage of goods from the ship Nostra Signora de/os Milagros. On 25.9.1686 he reported on this matter in a letter which he signed with a cross.

S[chrijver] became a member of the Council of Justice on 23.10.1687 and on 24 December the following year he asked permission to undertake an expedition into the interior without salary. On 4.1.1689, with eighteen or nineteen soldiers, several Hottentots, two waggons, trek oxen, food, ammunition and merchandise, he left on his way to the Inquaha Hottentots, returning to the Castle more than two years later (6.4.1689) with over a thousand cattle. This journey was significant, since it opened the way via the Gantouw (Sir Lowry's Pass) to the east, and because S[chrijver] also penetrated to as far as the area round the present Aberdeen he obtained more information about the interior.

On 31.3.1690 he was sent out with twenty soldiers, ten or twelve free burghers and three or four waggons in another attempt to find the crew of the Noord, and some time after his return he departed (11.9.1690) with thirty soldiers to barter livestock for tobacco, arrack and beads from the Hessequa and Sousequa Hottentots. S[chrijver] was subsequently sent on two more bartering expeditions in 1691 and 1692, but found the Hottentots more and more hostile. On 13.12.1696 he was ordered to track down slaves belonging to free burghers among the Grigriqua Hottentots and was told that if the latter refused to give them up he was to bring some of the indigenous people (Hottentots) back as hostages. This was done and S[chrijver] returned with two bosjesmans (also called 'bergmannetjes') whom the Council of Policy decided to detain until the slaves were returned.

In 1692 he was granted the farm Schoongesigt of twenty-one morgen and 400 square rood in Jan Jonckershoek (the present Jonkershoek). By then S[chrijver] was married to the widow Anna Hasselaar (nee Hoeck) who had two sons, Gaspar and Jacob Hasselaar. In 1699 S[chrijver] retired to his farm and his name no longer appeared in the minutes of the Council of Policy. When his wife, who had survived him, died in 1723 she owned five other farms in addition to Schoongesigt and the names of eight male slaves, one female slave and that of her child appeared in the inventory of the estate.

A.J.BOESEKEN

Cape Arch[ives]., C.T.: C.J. 2649: Testament, Isaq Schrijver, 1687; M.O.O.C.: Inventarissen, 1720-1727, no. 45: Inventaris, Anna Hoecks and Isaq Schrijver; Inkomende en uitgaande briewe; - E.C. GODÉE MOLSBERGEN (ed.), Reizen in Zuid-Afrika in de Hollandse tijd, 1652-1805. 4 v. (Linsch. Soc., The Hague, 1916-1932); - E.E. MOSSOP (ed.), Journals of the expeditions of the Honourable Ensign Olof Bergh (1682 and 1683) and lsaq Schrijver (1689) (V.R.S., no. 12). C.T., 1931.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaq_Schrijver